Who is Mrs. Smart?

dear readers,

I went straight into the third novel by A.D. Scott and knew this one would be the make or break book for the series.

BENEATH THE ABBEY WALL
(The Highland Gazette: Book Three) 
Written by A.D. Scott
Genre: historical, mystery, fiction

3.5 STARS

In Book one and two Mrs. Smart - the newspaper's office manager - is a background character.  We do not find out much about her but she is reliable and holds the Highland Gazette together.  The lack of detail of her life and her no nonsense attitude intrigued me and I was hoping in this book we would learn more.

It has been a few months since the last novel and in this book the Highland Gazette is thoroughly rocked.  First there is the death of Mrs. Smart and then Don McLeod is charged for her murder.  The members of the Gazette are not sure how Don and Mrs. Smart are connected and why her murder has wrecked him so much.

The reading of Mrs. Smart's will bring up more questions than helping the Gazette figure out who is Mrs. Smart's killer.  As they dig deeper into the case the newspaper is falling apart.  The new Canadian stranger in town working as a subeditor has Joanne in a lovestruck tizzy and MacAllister is too distraught over Don and Mrs. Smart to notice.  Joanne also might have a way to get rid of Bill and save her new life.  Time is of the essence but secrets are hard to shake loose and more than Don has everything to lose.


I am in for book four and have book five on hold at the library. As I said I think I will continue with the series until the books get dense or dull. I am going straight into book four an am about 35% into the novel.

love,
kris